Use the Synchronization wizard to create packages that you can
use to import and update data from external data sources. A
synchronization package specifies the data source, defines how data
from that source will be mapped to specific columns in ALM asset
records, and specifies whether new data will be automatically added
to the destination asset or sent to a “pending” queue where the
changes can be manually reviewed before being accepted.
After you have created packages, you can run them at any time to
import or update the data from the specified data sources.You can
also set up a workflow to automatically run a synchronization
package according to a schedule you define. See "Run a
synchronization package" under "LANDesk Service Management actions"
in the Designer's guide.
IMPORTANT: To run a
synchronization package, the user must have both the Create
Instance permission and the Edit Instance permission. In the Design
console, on the toolbar for the corresponding form, click
Properties > Security and set these permissions
for the user or role who will be running the sync package. If
either permission is missing, the sync package will fail and the
log file will indicate that permissions were lacking. Note also
that for any workflows that include a Run Synchronization Package
action, while configuring the workflow, the "Run as" user must have
these permissions granted.
To create a package using the synchronization wizard
Click the Synchronization tab at the top of
the Web console.
Only roles that have been given access will see the Synchronization
tab; otherwise, it will be hidden. For more information, see
Asset Lifecycle Manager
roles.
Click Synchronization packages.
Click New.
Follow the steps for each of the four tasks
below.
Task 1: General panel settings
Use the options on the General panel to name the package,
specify the destination asset for the imported data, and specify
the source from which the data will be imported.
Click General to open the General panel.
Type the name you want to give the package in the
Package name field.
Browse to and select the asset or resource to which
you want to add or update data.
Choose the Data source from which you will be
importing or updating data.
Follow the instructions below pertaining to the data
source you specified.
Synchronizing a CSV data source
To create a package to synchronize with a CSV file
In the File path field, type the exact path
(UNC or local) to the CSV data source.
Click Test to verify that you are able to
successfully connect to the specified CSV file.
Notes:
If you are using the ALM Web console on a
machine other than the Web server, you can import a file that is
physically located on the Web server, or you can make sure the file
is located on a network share that the user logged into ALM has
rights to access.
If you are running the Asset Lifecycle Manager Web
console directly on the ALM Web server, a mapped drive or regular
network share will work as expected.
Defining and
synchronizing ODBC data sources
When you select the radio button for ODBC, the settings on the
General page change to allow you to specify the data source, login
credentials for the ODBC source, and include a query to specify the
data to be retrieved (see "Syntax for ODBC data sources"
below).
To synchronize with ODBC data sources, you need to define the data
sources using the Windows ODBC Data Source Administrator utility on
the server where ALM is installed. You can synchronize with any
type of ODBC-compliant data source; three typical examples are a
SQL Server, an Oracle database, and a Microsoft Excel
spreadsheet.
For example, if you want to synchronize from an LDMS core server
set up with a SQL database, you need to define that database as a
data source (or, if you are using an Oracle database, you define
that database as a data source). If you have asset data stored in
an Excel spreadsheet, you can define that spreadsheet as a data
source and refer to named regions in the spreadsheet that contain
the data you want to synchronize.
NOTE:Important
Note for 64-bit Windows Server 2008 only
When creating an ODBC synchronization package on a 64-bit Windows
Server 2008 machine, you will need to create your DSN connection
using the 32-bit version of the ODBC Data Source Administrator
(located at c:\Windows\sysWOW64\odbcad32). This is because the
64-bit Data Source Administrator utility is only available for
64-bit applications. (Asset Lifecycle Manager 4.0 is a 32-bit
application.)
Two examples of defining a data source are given below: setting
up a SQL database, and setting up a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. To
set up an Oracle database, follow the steps for a SQL database but
select the Microsoft ODBC for Oracle driver in step 3; some
other settings may differ as you complete the wizard.
To define a SQL database as a data source
From the ALM server, click Start > Programs
> Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC).
Click the System DSN tab, then click
Add.
Select the SQL Server driver and then click
Finish. A wizard opens to help you define the data
source.
Type a name to identify the SQL data source (this
name will appear in the ALM synchronization UI). Optionally, you
can type a description for the data source.
Select the SQL server for the SQL database, and then
click Next.
To verify authenticity on the SQL server, select
With SQL Server authentication using a login ID and password
entered by the user. Type the login ID and password for the SQL
server, and then click Next.
The wizard tests the connection to the SQL server, and if
successful, continues to let you select the database.
Select Change the default database to, and
then select the name of the database. For LDMS SQL databases,
select ldservice. Click Next.
Accept all other default settings, and then click
Finish.
A summary of the data source is displayed. If you
want to verify that the data source settings are correct, click
Test Data Source. After the success message, click
OK.
To define a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet as a data source
In the spreadsheet, name the regions of data that you
want to refer to (in Excel, click Insert > Name >
Define). Each named region is treated like a table in a
database, and columns within the named regions are treated like
columns within a database table.
On the server where the spreadsheet is stored, click
Start > All Programs > Administrative Tools > Data
Sources (ODBC).
Click the System DSN tab, then click
Add.
Select the Microsoft Excel (.xls) driver and
then click Finish. A wizard opens to help you define the
data source.
Type a name to identify the spreadsheet as a data
source (this name will appear in the ALM synchronization UI).
Optionally, you can type a description for the data source.
If needed, select the version of Microsoft Excel that
the spreadsheet was created in.
Click Select Workbook and browse to the
location of the Excel file. Select the file and click
OK.
Click OK to complete the setup.
NOTE: If the ALM
synchronization tool can't open a spreadsheet file, make sure that
the spreadsheet is not currently open in Microsoft Excel. Open
spreadsheets are locked and can't be accessed as data sources.
Syntax for ODBC data sources
When you define a package for an ODBC data source, the Table,
View, or Query text box lets you specify a table name or view
in that data source, or create a query that selects data from one
or more parts of the data source. The query syntax you use here
should follow the ODBC standards for the type of data source being
referenced.
In this syntax text box, you can simply type a table or view
name to synchronize data from a table or view. When you do this,
all data columns in the table or view are available for
synchronization. To select data more specifically, type a query in
the Table, View, or Query text box. For example, if you
reference a SQL database and want to select all data from one
table, you can enter a query in this form:
Select * from tablename
This query selects all data from the specified table.
As another example, you can give a column name an alias to make
it easier to remember the contents of that column when
synchronizing data. The syntax for this example is in this
form:
Select columnname as aliasname from tablename
This query select the data from the specified column but labels
it with the alias you specify.
LDMS queries
If you have LANDesk Management Suite (LDMS) 9.0 SP2 or later,
and you have defined queries in LDMS to extract inventory data for
reports, etc., you can create synchronization packages to use those
queries to capture data directly and synchronize it to your
ALM database.
Note: To synchronize data from existing
LDMS queries:
You need to have set up a connection to the
LDMS core you want to query (Tools > Settings
> Integration servers).
The LDMS core needs to be LDMS 9.0 SP2 or later;
if you attempt to query from an older core (LDMS 9.0 SP1 or
earlier), a warning message will appear and the sync job will
fail.
To access LDMS data from a core running LDMS 8.8 SP2
through 9.0 SP1, you would need to use the AMP synchronization
source as described below.
To create a synchronization package for LDMS queries
Create a new synchronization package, specifying the
package name and the asset or resource into which you want to
synchronize.
For the data source, select LDMS Query.
Specify the integration server (LDMS core) you
wish to query.
In the LDMS query field, select the query
you want to use. If the core does not meet the specified
requirements, an error message will appear, indicating the
problem.
Click Mapping and proceed to map the fields.
The Source columns in the Mapping panel should match the columns
defined in the query you specified.
Complete the settings on the Matching, and
Rules pages.
Save the sync package.
Defining and synchronizing data sources with
Avocent® Management
Platform (AMP)
If you have LANDesk Management Suite 8.8 through 9.0 SP1, and
you installed Avocent Management Platform (AMP) on a server on your
network, you can synchronize data from your Management Suite
database by using AMP queries. These are referred to in the
interface as "configuration items". Avocent Management Platform
enables you to capture data from LDMS 8.8 or 9.0 SP1. It includes
several predefined configuration items, such as "Devices,"
"Servers," and "Network Switches." In addition, you can define
configuration items to query for any type of asset in the database.
When you have defined custom configuration items in Avocent
Management Platform, they will be displayed in the list of
configuration items in the ALM interface.
Note: In order to synchronize with LANDesk Management
Suite using the Avocent Management Platform:
Your LANDesk Management Suite installation must be
version 8.8 (SP2 or later) or 9.0, and must use either Oracle or
SQL 2005 or later. Although LDMS 8.7 supports SQL 2000, an
installation using SQL 2000 will not integrate with ALM.
Avocent Management Platform must be installed on
a server on your network. AMP can be installed on the Management
Suite core, or on another machine, as long as AMP is set to point
to the Management Suite core. During installation, select the
Use the LANDesk Management Suite
database option on the “Integrate with LANDesk
Management Suite” page, and point to the current
LDMS database. If this option is not specified during
installation, you will not be able to access the configuration
items when defining data sources for synchronization.
When "Use the LANDesk Management Suite database" is
selected during the installation of Avocent Management Platform,
the Installation program will prompt for the LDMS database
credentials. This needs to be the same database username and
password that was used when installing the LDMS database.
To create a synchronization package for Avocent Management
Platform
Create a new synchronization package.
Select AMP as the data source.
Type the name of your Avocent Management Platform
server in the Core name text box.
Enter the user name and password for Avocent
Management Platform (these credentials were defined during AMP
installation).
Click Test to make sure the connection to AMP
can be successfully opened.
Click Browse. A list of currently available
configuration items from your installation of Avocent Management
Platform is displayed (including both default and custom items).
Select the configuration item you want to use for this
synchronization package. When you select the item, the dialog
closes automatically and the configuration item is displayed in the
text box.
When the four text boxes are complete, you can begin
mapping data from this data source.
Note: In step 6, if the list of configuration items does
not display, there is an error in the credentials or core server
name. Check this information and correct it, then click
Browse again.
Synchronizing Active Directory data
You can synchronize user, asset, organization, vendor, and other
data from Active Directory into your Asset Lifecycle Manager
database. You can synchronize from an entire domain or from a
specific OU, and you can use wildcards to filter the data to be
added. Synchronizing from Active Directory speeds up the process of
populating your ALM data repository and delivers an added
benefit of helping you discover and correct inconsistencies that
may exist between various data sources in your organization.
As with other synchronization sources, the order in which you
synchronize different AD objects will affect how useful the
synchronized data is. For example, by synchronizing Company,
Department, and Location attributes first, these objects can then
be included when you synchronize your User Profile data. By putting
some thought into the order in which you synchronize data, you can
more efficiently create relationships between assets and
resources.
To create an Active Directory synchronization package
Create a new synchronization package and assign a
package name.
Select Active Directory as the data
source.
Specify the Active Directory connection, as
configured in Tools > Settings > Users/groups in the
Design console (see "Configuring users/groups" in the Designer's
guide).
(Optional) Specify the Organizational unit
(OU).
(Optional) Specify the filter to use (wildcards are
permitted).
Specify the Object class and the
Primary and Secondary attribute to search on, or keep
the default settings.
The default object class is set to "user". You can also synchronize
with the "computer" object class. To synchronize with an object
class other than "user" or "computer", contact LANDesk
Technical Support for assistance.
When the text boxes are filled in, click
Mapping and proceed to map the fields.
VMWare hosts and virtual machines
If you use VMWare hosts and virtual machines in your
environment, you may want to synchronize the data from these
sources into your asset repository. The Virtual machine
synchronization type enables you to synchronize virtual machine and
host machine information from your VMware ESX server into your ALM
database so you can manage these virtual and host machines as you
would other assets.
Before you can define synchronization packages for this data
type, you need to have set up an integration server for VMWare in
the ALM Design console (see "Using third-party connectors with
Asset Lifecycle Manager" in the Designer's guide). You
will need to specify the integration server in step 3 below.
To create a synchronization package for VM hosts or virtual
machines
Create a new synchronization package and assign a
package name.
Select Virtual machine as the Data
source.
When you specify Virtual machine as the data source, the
Computer object is automatically selected in the Asset or
resource field, and will overwrite any other selection.
In the VM Integration server field, specify
the name of the VMWare integration server.
Specify whether you want to import Host or
Virtual machine information.
Select the destination Computer type you want
your virtual or host assets to be imported as. For example, if you
import Virtual machine information, you may want to set Computer
type as "Virtual machine". If you import host machine information,
you should set the computer type as "Server" so that these assets
will be assigned to the correct computer type.
Click Mapping to map the source and
destination fields.
Task 2: Mapping panel settings
Use the options on the Mapping dialog panel to specify how
columns in the data source will map to columns in the destination
asset or resource. Mapping can be as straightforward as mapping a
single source data column to a column in the destination asset or
resource, or as complex as mapping numerous source and destination
columns while creating relationships with linked columns in other
assets or resources.
The Mapping panel contains three columns:
Destination column: This list contains the
names of all columns in the specified destination asset or
resource.
Foreign column: This list is used to map
relationships between the current asset and another form or
supporting resource, and contains a drop-down box on any row that
corresponds to a linked column in the destination. The drop-down
box contains the names of unique fields in the linked asset or
supporting resource. This column acts as a "qualifier" that
compares the unique field selected in the mapped supporting
resource with the column in the external data source. A
relationship is then created for the data source name that matches
the supporting resource with the same name.
Source column: This list contains a drop-down
box on each row. The drop-down box contains the names of all
columns in the specified data source.
If no Foreign column is present
When mapping a data item that does not include a foreign column,
you simply select the correct field from the Source column
drop-down box to map to the corresponding column in the
Destination column list. For example, if you were
synchronizing data from a CSV file containing a field called
"Manufacturer", and you wanted the values from that field to appear
in the "Manufacturer name" column in the destination asset records,
you would find the "Manufacturer name" row in the Destination
column list, and then open the drop-down box located on that
row in the Source column list and select
"Manufacturer".
Where a Foreign column is present
The Foreign column acts as a qualifier to map relationships
between assets and supporting resources. When mapping a data item
that includes a drop-down box in the Foreign column list,
you need to specify the column from the supporting resource that
will be used to qualify the data. This ensures that data
from the source will only be imported into the destination if it
matches values that are present in the supporting resource.
For example, you may have a destination asset which contains a
"Cost center" column that is linked to the "Cost center name"
column in a supporting resource that contains information on all
approved vendors. If you were synchronizing data from a "CostCtr"
column in a CSV file to the "Cost center name" column in the
destination asset, you would find the "Cost center name" row in the
Destination column list, select "Cost center name" from the
Foreign column drop-down box on that row, and then select
"CostCtr" from the Source column drop-down box on that
row.
If a
dropdown list is present in the foreign column for any source
values you are mapping, you will need to specify a qualifier for
those values. The qualifier is used to determine whether data from
the source should be imported into the destination.
During
synchronization, the values in the CostCtr, Dept, and
Location columns in the CSV Source file are compared against
existing values in the corresponding supporting resource.
Record 4
will not be imported because Cost Center 1002 does not exist in the
Cost Center supporting resource.
Note that
the Cost Center supporting resource needs to have been
populated before running the synchronization package.
When the synchronization package is run, each item in the
"CostCtr" column of the CSV file (Source column) will be
compared against existing values in the "Cost center
name" column (Foreign column) from the supporting
resource. If a match is found (and the strings must match exactly),
the record containing the data will be imported into the "Cost
center" Destination column. If the strings do not match
exactly, the record containing the data will not be imported.
Important:
If the Destination table does not include any columns
marked "unique", the Foreign Column drop-down will indicate "No
unique values". If you specify mapping for that destination column,
the synchronization package will not import or update any data. To
correct the problem, you must modify the supporting resource form
so that it contains a unique field that can be linked to from the
destination asset.
If the Destination table includes duplicate rows,
those rows will be processed normally. You may need to go in and
manually remove any unwanted duplicates.
When synchronizing data to a destination field that
includes a drop-down box for a foreign column, the table that
corresponds to the foreign column must be populated first. If the
mapping for the foreign column is not found, the data from the
external data source will not be imported.
Because supporting resources and linked assets must
exist before you can import records that link to them, they should
be imported before you import other asset data.
To map source data columns to destination columns
Click Mapping to open the Mapping panel.
For each Destination column for which this
package will import or update data, click the corresponding
Source column drop-down and select the source data field
that should be stored in that column in the destination asset.
If a drop-down appears for a mapped item in the
Foreign column field, open it and select the data key that
you want to compare the source data against. Only values which
exactly match data in the linked asset or supporting resource will
be imported into the destination record. For example, if a delivery
location for an Active directory user doesn't match a location
listed in the Location supporting resource, that user record will
not be synchronized into the ALM database. To prevent this, make
sure to synchronize the delivery locations from Active directory
with the Location supporting resource before importing users
from Active directory.
Destination Column: Field into which data will be
imported.
Foreign
Column: Qualifier for comparing data to be imported.
Source
Column: Data to be imported.
NOTE: When you run a
synchronization package, any failures due to non-matches with the
foreign column will be recorded in the synchronization log. See
Synchronization status for
information on viewing the log.
Task 3: Matching panel settings
The Matching panel lets you define how to find the matching
record in the destination asset or resource. You do this by
selecting one or more fields which you want to contain unique
values in the destination record.
For example, you might check Asset name because you want
to make sure that each record in the destination is for a unique
asset. When you run the package, each value in the source data
column that is mapped to the Asset name column in the
destination asset is checked against the existing values in that
column.
If the asset name in a source data record does
not match an existing asset name in the destination, a new
destination record is created. Depending on the settings you
specify in the Rules panel, the new record will be either
automatically added to the destination asset or sent to the
Pending inserts queue where you can manually review it
before choosing to insert it.
If the asset name in a source data record does
match an existing asset name in the destination, that record is
considered to already exist. Depending on the settings you specify
in the Rules panel, other data values in that record which do not
match values in the mapped column in the destination record will
either overwrite the existing values in the destination record, or
will be sent to the Pending updates queue for manual review
before acceptance.
If you check multiple Destination column names, the
source record data must match the values in all checked
columns in an existing destination record to be considered a match.
If one or more values do not match, the record is treated as a new
record.
To compare source records with destination records
Click Matching to open the Matching
panel.
Check the desired destination columns.
Task 4: Rules panel settings
Options on the Rules panel let you specify how newly discovered
records and updates to existing records will be handled:
New records (as defined by the settings
specified on the Matching panel) can be automatically added
to the destination asset, or they can be sent to the Pending
inserts queue where you can manually review them and choose to
either insert them or ignore them.
Updates to existing data in specified columns
can either be added directly to the destination asset, overwriting
the existing value, or can be sent to the Pending updates
queue where you can manually review them and choose to either
accept them or ignore them. This lets you protect data in specific
fields from being overwritten when you run the package. For
example, you may choose to protect the Cost center column in
the destination asset. If a current asset record has the cost
center "495" and running the synchronization package returns data
that the cost center is now "497", the current value in the record
will not be updated to "497" until you review it and accept the
change.
To specify rules
Click Rules to open the Rules panel.
Check the Automatically add new items from the
source to the asset system checkbox if you want to have new
records automatically added to the destination asset.
If the checkbox is left unchecked, new records will be sent to
the Pending inserts queue, where they will remain until you
choose to insert them or ignore them.
In the Destination columns to protect list,
check any columns in the destination asset that you want to
protect from being overwritten without first being manually
reviewed.
Only changes made to checked columns will be sent to the
Pending updates queue; changes to unchecked columns will be
added directly to the destination asset, updating the existing
values.
If a relationship has changed or no longer exists between an
asset and/or a supporting resource, you can remove that
relationship during synchronization by clicking the checkbox next
to "Remove relationships..." and then selecting the item in the
dropdown list.
Click the green checkmark button to save the
synchronization package.